Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. They emerged at the vanguard of the "California Sound", first performing original surf songs that gained international popularity for their distinct vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. Rooted in jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and doo-wop, Brian led the band in devising novel approaches to music production, arranging his compositions for studio orchestras, and experimenting with several genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic and baroque.

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Links To Peel

In the 60's and 70's, Peel would often play tracks from the Beach Boys, who were at the height of their popularity as a Californian surf band during the years when he was working as a DJ in the USA. (Indeed, he would later recall that when he was working at KMEN in San Bernardino, California, he was advised not to sound "too English", as this would alienate the surfers who listened to the station.) Later, after the release of their musically adventurous album Pet Sounds, they became favourites of the "hip" audience in the UK and Peel played their records on the Perfumed Garden and his BBC shows, but by the 80's, he seemed to have lost interest in the group, due to their musical style being no longer exciting to him. On his 15 September 1990 (BFBS) show Peel described how record and radio producers played the band's music on the radio in their desire to feel young, which he despised:

"I must admit, I'm not a great fan of the Beach Boys, y'know, because it's one of those things. Whenever summer comes along, record producers and radio producers of about my age...they put on Beach Boys records because it makes them feel young, I think, and they can't think of anything else to do anyway, so I've always had it in for the Beach Boys for that reason."

In the 90's and 00's. Peel would sometimes play the Beach Boys' track "409", which he liked particularly, because he had owned a car of that brand number, whilst living in America.